Oh my goodness. Let’s talk about this book being the EMBODIMENT of everything everywhere all at fucking once, and I mean that in the most complimentary way! Wowwwww. Seriously, you should have witnessed my dramatizations and reactions throughout reading Winter’s Myths, you couldn’t pay the best damn actor in the world to reenact them.

I am officially a die-hard Gage Greenwood fan. I am now a Gagent of Chaos, simple as that. He is brilliant, and an incredibly gifted writer. This is clear from Winter’s Myths alone, and I still have an entire second book to the series waiting for me to crack open, and he’s currently writing the third. I was never into fantasy novels, even dark fantasy, but my mind may have just changed.

Honestly, you can’t really limit this book to one genre. It falls beautifully all over the place. It’s not only dark fantasy— but it has elements of horror, dystopia, and a bit of thriller packed in as well. There is plenty of action and adventure, though most of the action and adventure is not very pleasant for the cast of characters.

While this probably won’t make sense until you read it — the book jumps around everywhere, yet has such a simple and straightforward foundation/storyline. The story follows Winter and his two young daughters, Violin and Candlestick (yes Violin and fucking Candlestick), as they navigate the upper world aka Earth. They’ve just been forced to escape their underground home/colony after a nasty and fatal disease ravages it, leaving behind their ill family members. The upper world is new to them — unseen and terrifying. Myths of murderous humans and a horrible society bring fear to the three. All Winter knows is that humans are bad. The upper world is bad. Kill to survive. And this, he instills into his fiesty, kick-ass little girls. The goal is to survive, and as you follow the three on their journey, you connect to each and every one of them.

To make this journey bearable, Winter often tells his girls stories— myths consisting of a demigod version of Kevin Bacon, a gigantic Abraham Lincoln, Miley Cyrus, a raccoon named Rapture, and mythical gods. Yes…. all these random people (and animals) are in the same story. IT WORKS, just trust me. If this paragraph alone doesn’t show you just how creative you need to be to make demigod Kevin Bacon and Miley Cyrus work, then I don’t know what else can prove that.

I love Gage’s writing style, it flows so well. Plot, world-building, and character development all deserve five stars across the board. And if you go into the book blind, it’s even better! It’s not like you’re prepared for anything in the book anyway, that’s impossible haha. Ugh, bravo and well done with Winter’s Myths. Any fantasy novel I read after this will have to battle a tough contender, because this was one of my favorite reads of the year so far.

And Violin? I love her. I’m rooting for her. She is such a fiery badass. I need her to thrive.

But Gage, you broke my heart with the ending. I’m looking for some redemption or peace of mind in book two! My heart broke into a million pieces, but what an excellent end to welcome the oncoming second book.

Slapping my 5 out of 5 stars on the table for this one! Read this book. I cannot wait to dig into Winter’s Legacy to continue this fantastic journey.


Edit—
Adding my favorite quote from the book: “No. Humans never save, they kill. This is a trick. Somehow, they are tricking us. It was Kevin Bacon who saved me.” Pure gold.